Belgaum city hosted the three-day cultural festival Vishwa Kannada Sammelan from Friday, 11th March to  13th March. The three-day 'Vishwa Kannada Sammelana' came to an end with Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa announcing that the government intends to hold this World meet once in every five years.

The first 'Sammelana' was held 25 years ago in Mysore.

Speaking at the valedictory function, the Chief Minister expressed his gratitude to people of this border city for making the meet a grand success. "The success of Vishwa Kannada Sammelana in Belgaum has been beyond our expectations and I salute the people of this city and all those in the Bombay-Karnataka region." To propagate Kannada language across the globe, the Karnataka government had decided to fund 'Kannada Chairs' in four foreign universities like Wurzburg, Heidelberg, Vienna and Munich varsities.

Hampi, the capital of erstwhile Vijayanagar kingdom, is being given a major facelift at a cost of Rs 100 crore and the town would also get a theme park which will be a major destination for tourists, he said.

To loud the cheers from people, Mr Yeddyurappa said he had laid foundation stone for 'Vishwa Kannada Sammelana Udyanavana', a sprawling garden on the lines of Lal Bagh in Bangalore, which will come up on a 100 acre plot in Belgaum.

The three-days of the second edition of the conference, depicting various hues of Kannada language and culture, held after a gap of 25 years, was very successful. This included both Kannada and Marathi speaking people of this border city known as 'sugar city' of Karnataka reflecting on he bon homie between the two cultures.

Nearly 50,000 delegates from across the country and abroad had participate in the event. Tens of thousands of locals celebrated the event by attending different programmes held currently in 13 venues of the city.

The events included workshops, poets and writer’s conferences, comedy shows, book fairs, staging of dramas and other programmes.

More than 5,700 artists, including 300 Kannada speaking people from abroad, performed at various shows during the event. This included 1000 actors and others from the Kannada film and small screen sectors that performed throughout the three-days of the event.

Prominent among those who attended the event included Infosys mentor N R Narayana Murthy, bollywood actor Aishwarya Rai Bhachchan, Lambeth Mayor Dr Neeraj Patil, senior journalist Patil Puttappa, social worker Sudha Murthy, environmentalist Salumarada Thimmakka, doyens of Kannada theatre Yenagi Balappa, Girish Karnad, noted academician D Javaregowda, Congress leader Siddaramaiah and Union Minister K H Muniyappa.

Source:  14. March. 2011, TOI